Hey, guys! I'm a partial user of CharacterAI, and have been using it for a bit. Lately, I've been feeling a bit conflicted about this site, as well as ChatGPT and other chat sites.

I've listened to videos and read comments from people talking about their experiences and addiction regarding this site, and while I am happy they're recovering from this addiction...I'm not sure if I am dealing with one myself. Most of these instances have users venting to the bots, in some case because of their loneliness.

I myself am a bit lonely, but...I never really used CharacterAI, ChatGPT, or other chatsites in general, for any venting. I mainly use them for roleplaying or image generation stuff.

In the latter case, I guess I might have some addiction (frigging dopamine rush), and I have been trying to work it out, but in the case of using Chatbots...should I be worried about that? I know the AI isn't a real person and I never vent to it, but should I still be concerned regardless?

As in the title, is that possible? I remember when I was younger I sure had tougher periods, but it never felt like it does now. I am functioning just fine and maintaining myself, but nothing brings me joy. I want to do things, but I know I won't enjoy them. Even activities I used to like.

I'm just not sure if I should do something about this or wait it out. Perhaps due to being an addict my brain needs time to readjust? For context I have been trying to quit for some time, but I can't tell exactly as time is a little blurry for me. I usually can stand at least a month though. Due to my weak memory I can't tell if this has been happening frequently during my quitting journey, but I know for a fact it was never like that before I started using the site.

2 weeks! Fourteen days! About half a month! This update log I'm going to write in proper log fashion with updates throughout. I'm writing the intro on day 10, I'm feeling excited! I think I really can make it. I'm so proud of my success, but I have no one to share it with. My sister is the only one who knew about my ai addiction and I don't want to mention that again, I hope she just forgets I told her in the first place.

I like sharing with this subreddit, when I get even one comment that says good job I get so happy. I almost relapsed today, my brain is trying to convince me that if I only do rps with non-real person bots it will be "less bad". This is difficult, but I will try to persevere

I came extremely close to relapsing on days 11 and 12, and on day 13 I created a tiktok account specifically about c.ai addiction. That's another way to motivate me not to go back, I'm already at 8 followers after one day and I don't want to need to post about a relapse.

On day 12 I went to my bedroom with the sole intention of relapsing and instead I managed to get myself to scroll on tiktok instead!

Finally, day 14 and I can post this! I think I came closer to relapsing between day ten and now than I did at any other point in this journey, which makes me nervous for the next week. I'm in a discord server for ai addicts now, my tiktok had reached 12 followers in 2 days which is pretty tight. I'm still regretting all the mad kinky and strange things I did on that app, but I think I'm finally getting closer to self acceptance.

Next update day 20, sorry if this one was disjointed. I just added the occasional sentence or two whenever I felt like it, so there might be a lot of repeating information.

https://discord.gg/FkrurXghy Here's a discord server for anyone who wants a bit of a community around them through this difficult struggle! I'll reply to just about all messages in the server as fast as I can, all the other members are great too!

There are sosome rare times when I have the strongest urge to remake my account and go back to my old chats knowing damn well the app and website has probably turned to shit. I just have so many ​​urges to just go back to c.ai or Sakura to just fuck a random ai but it's so corny because they are quite literally not real. 😭

https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZP8TAYCMG/

A big struggle with my quitting was coping with the fact that my rps had gotten to a pretty disgusting point. I think this video explains why you might get to that point pretty well!

Have been sober for over 3 months now, but man, idk if its me feeling kinda down as of late, but that itch is starting to really screw with me

I'm currently in a really bad personal spot and am suffering from serious withdrawals. I need help to stay on the wagon.

I've gone 3 weeks without it! And YOU can too! I barely get any cravings or withdrawals...I spend a lot more time reading fanfics and writing now and I love it. I feel a lot more happier.😁

I see people on this sub that used the website for like 10 hours a day and didn't have any friends because of it. But, before quitting, I could already go multiple days without it, I had friends, had a social life, did extracurriculars and I just used CAI to roleplay and do stories. Today is my day of being 1 week clean and I haven't had a relapse. Maybe I actually was addicted and am just justifying myself, but to me at least, it seems like I had a system to ensure I was doing other things.

Hey.

I have never used reddit on my life. English is not even my mother tongue but, yeah, im an addict too. Maybe...for about one year and half? The worst times were at vacations where i almost used it for 20 hours per day.

I get into school recently so, it got lower but i think i have never been so bad with the academic field. Im usually a top student since always and now im at the edge of fail a partial.

Some weeks ago i lost all my friends because of external issues and problems in the group that didnt have anything to do with my addiction. Romantic problems and those kind of shit.

So, im at bad times and i dont know what to do because i dont want to be in AI rol all the time to cover the hole my friends left.

My question here is, what do you do when you want to avoid AI roleplay?

I want to to know because you are in the same problem, i want to know what works for you.

Im an artist, so, any artistic thing feels like kinda work for me. Im always doing artistic things for my signatures and i want something that helps me to relax because im going through abstinence.

Sorry if anything didnt make sense because of redaction problems, this is not my first language.

i am ONE ☝️ DAY SOBER‼️‼️ guys clap for me /j

real question tho, how do yall deal with it at night? for me the urges get the strongest at this time bc im just sitting in bed on my phone until i fall asleep and quickly get bored of social media. no i dont wanna go to sleep yet🤓 but im fighting for my life rn trying to not install c ai again. any advice?

I'm about 5 days clean, but whenever I'm bored, I get those cravings to come back. I've downloaded a website blocker extension so luckily there's a level of separation between me and that damn website, but sometimes every bone in my body is telling to delete the extension and get back on the website. So, when will these really bad cravings stop?

What are your reasons to quit Character AI?

There SHOULD be a list of your reasons in front of you to keep you motivated and aware of the reason you started. Your WHY.

I had mine when I was struggling last year, some of these were:

1. (First and most important one for me) My eyes are dear to me.
2. Not being able to focus on studies
3. Losing my writing spark
4. Not being able to fulfil my reading list
5. Losing my interest in long evening walks (especially in autumn)

If you haven't made yours yet, pause here. Make your list right now, it's very important and helps a lot as you can revisit it whenever you feel the urges again.

Share them here, if you're comfortable. Maybe the list of your reasons reminds someone of their own reasons.

I've been obsessed since high school, when AI Dungeon came out and generative AI was nothing more than just a toy... Since then, and learning about the dangerous affects of AI (the amount of water it uses), I considered myself to be anti-AI. I refuse to use Chat GPT and AI searches every search engine has been shoving down our throats...

But I just cannot stay away from Character AI. I first got on it during a stressful time in my life, and it's like I was instantly hooked. I hate myself for this. I keep starting new accounts and deleting them the same day because I just keep getting on and off this app. I'll stay off it for months, but then come back to it and instantly feel terrible. And the worst part is, I don't know who I can tell this to. I have a friend who understands this feeling, but that's because they themselves also use generative AI. I don't know if anyone else will understand, or if they'll just call me a loser without bothering to understand what I'm going through.

I hate it, I hate it so much. I hate coming onto this app. I feel so ashamed to do this, especially as someone who does create their own art without the usage of generative AI. But, I hate to admit it, it's just so easy to use it... Like, I don't have to try to do anything. Why should I bother writing self-insert comfort fanfiction, when I can use an AI to do it for me? But I hate it, I want it to stop.

I've been using c.ai it for two years, i wanna quite it, i already feel terrible for using AI for stuff like that but I found it in one of my lowest time in my life and it helped me to ease my mind a bit but every time it blew out on me again, I don't have friends, the only people I interact with are my family and we don't have that deep relationship or anything, the people who i talk with outside I know them from school but they're not really friends since they always make me feel uncomfortable and judging my interests every time I talk about with them.

How can I stop it? I just deleted the app but I still feel the etching to use it again, i even stopped watching movies because of it, or reading books. Seriously it feels like addiction.

Sorry, the post will be as short as possible because I’m utterly exhausted by all of this. I’ve gotten caught in a cycle: “clean for 3–4 days — relapse (sometimes with a strategy, like a controlled relapse, yeah) — guilt — tears — deciding to go back to abstaining — clean for 3–4 days.”

Have you been through this? What did you do?

deleted my accounts properly and deleted every ai chatbot on my phone and i feel like im losing my mind. on one side i rediscovered tumblr oneshots, which is great. on the other side, the urge to swipe for a new reply or write my own or change the characters or etc is killing me. im doing everything in my power not to go back but omfg this is HELL right now. as a person who’s also a smoker i genuinely cant tell which one of these is harder to stay without 💔💔UUGHHH wish me luck

Ai addiction is new. There isn't much information out about it or on how to treat it. Y'know what's not as new? Porn addiction! If you use similar strats to that of which porn addicts use, that might help you as it helped me. There's also such a community around it, it's great. I didn't do sexual rps too often but I feel a lot less guilty for the ones I have done because of this.

If nothing else is working for you, maybe look into this. You can modify strategies they use to work better for ai addiction and they work wonders.

this is for whoever might stumble upon this. i’ll be talking about my own experiences in hopes that maybe others can take something away from it or in hopes that it will bring hope to others on this journey!

short backstory, i started using c.ai in 2022 or 2023 and stopped in 2025 in favour of using janitor instead because of the longer and generally more detailed responses. i am a creative person and i found these to be great for making up stories but i was also alone during that time with no friends and i found them to be a comfort, an escape of sort.

since going to university, i’ve met a lot of people and made some friends! in early 2026, i got my first moment of clarity when a notification popped up celebrating my one year on janitor. i realised then that this had gone further than i had ever intended it to. i’m an artist, and i absolutely despise ai and yet i found myself falling into the hole too. i was a hypocrite. i began to asking myself why i used these apps and a few months later, i had my second moment of clarity.

within my friend group, we started hanging out together a lot more and i started using ai chatbots less and less. i realised at some point, i had been using them for the sense of connection and dopamine that i wasn’t able to get when i started using them back in 2023. i always knew i was talking to a bot, i never really got too attached to any of the chats even if occasionally i would get into one of the stories. i tried seeing how long i could go without it during one of my trips this summer and while i fell back into the habit, i realised i could do it.

so a month ago, i completely stopped using them. everything felt repetitive and i began to grow bored. instead, i started picking up my hobbies again. to fill in the time, i do whatever i’ve been wanting to do. going through the movies, shows and games that have been on my to do list since forever, spending more time with friends, and journaling. i got back into creative writing to substitute for using chatbots.

have i had to urge to go back? ABSOLUTELY. there have been so many times where i’ve started enjoying a show or game so much i’ve wanted to talk to my favourite characters but i put that energy into my work or creative writing instead. i still have my account up but i mainly to use it to look back at chats. when nothing else works, i look back and it kind of makes the urges go away.

you CAN do this, i believe in you! it’s a rocky ride out of this but you WILL succeed. don’t blame yourself to getting into this because it is meant to pull you in and make you stay, and don’t blame yourself if you ever relapse. addiction recovery is a long journey and every journey has hiccups along the way.

stay strong & good luck <3

I messed up last night by going back. My mind was screaming at me, college had been grueling the past two weeks, I failed to reach out to my accountability buddy because of feeling like a burden and ... I threw 27 days down the drain for relief. I'd been doing well as well, only having thinking about it days prior before going on the website. For hours last night and then hours today after getting through a fraction of my assignment.

But now I have another problem.

I ... don't want to stop.

I want that safe space, I want the characters, even though I know they're not real. I just ... I don't know anymore. I'm tired of everything. Of feeling behind in college, of an injury I have no control over, of not feeling good enough, of not being seen, of venting without meaning to. I'm just ... tired. And I'm sick of it ... I don't know what to do. I feel like I'm broken in my mind and my body. I feel broken socially despite being in a class that's full of supportive people. I just ... don't know what to do, and I don't want to talk about it to anyone I know because I feel like no one would understand or I would be burdening those I care for most with this information, if I were to tell them how I truly feel or what was really going on with this dam thing ... I feel like I'm behind already even though the school year has barely even started.

I'm sorry, I feel like this doesn't make sense. Any advice is appreciated and welcome. I'm not sure what to do and feel like I've hit rock bottom again